KeenWrite VS warp

KeenWrite is my free, open-source, cross-platform desktop Markdown editor that can produce beautifully typeset PDFs. I started working on it years ago to help write a novel that has a complex timeline and I couldn't find a text editor that would allow me to integrate a character sheet with the story itself.

https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

Tutorials:

* https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9...

Here's what I mean by using variables directly:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFCqe3A5dFg

CommonMark doesn't propose a standard for bibliographic references. Would anyone find the editor more appealing if it had cross-references and citations?

My cross-platform desktop text editor, KeenWrite, allows users to define variables in an external YAML file. The editor calls out to Kroki[1] to convert text-based diagrams to SVG. The diagrams can reference variables and are rendered using EchoSVG[2].

KeenWrite[3] can produce PDF documentation from Markdown documents that has PlantUML diagrams with elements stored in an external, machine-readable file. Here are screenshots showing variables on the left, diagram text in the middle, and a real-time render on the right:

* https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DaveJarvis/KeenWrite/main/...

* https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DaveJarvis/KeenWrite/main/...

KeenWrite supports all diagrams offered by Kroki, which includes "diagram-plantuml".

[1]: https://kroki.io/

[2]: https://github.com/css4j/echosvg/

[3]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

Although not interactive, I've created a video series that shows advanced usage of Markdown. Namely R, external variables, diagrams, math, annotations, and a different approach to metadata:

* https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9...

Tutorial 4 shows basic Markdown:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNbGSiRzx-0

The top-right of each video shows keyboard and mouse clicks to help follow along.[1] My desktop text editor, KeenWrite[2], is used in the tutorials.

[1]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/kmcaster

[2]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/blob/main/scripts/bu...

My template script provides a way to make user-friendly shell scripts. In a script that uses the template, you define the dependencies and their sources:

    DEPENDENCIES=(

I didn't create the fork, nor am I affiliated with the project. I use it in my text editor, KeenWrite to rasterize SVG.

KeenWrite Themes[1] are instructions that tell ConTeXt how to typeset XHTML documents (content) into PDF files (presentation). I made a tutorial that shows how my FOSS desktop text editor, KeenWrite[3], allows users to write in Markdown to typeset a document against a particular theme.

Before it can be used for scientific papers, it needs cross-references, which, unfortunately, aren't part of the CommonMark specification.

I posit that the vast majority of LaTeX users don't grok how to separate content from presentation. When I asked a question on TeX.SE about how to adjust the line spacing between enumerated items (spanning a couple dozen enumerated lists), the vast majority of people voted for the answer of using `\itemsep0em` to tweak each list ... individually.[4] The correct answer, IMO, is to fix the problem globally, and not waste time tweaking individual lists.

[1]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QpX70O5S30

[3]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

[4]: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/6081/reduce-space-be...

jpackage is not the only tool for bundling Java. There is also warp-packer, an open-source tool to create self-contained binary applications from Node.js, .NET Core, and Java. warp-packer requires a similar workflow to Method 2, where you create your modified Java Runtime image and an executable script before bundling everything together into an executable.

https://github.com/dgiagio/warp just googled it, no direct experience

KeenWrite is my free, open-source, cross-platform desktop Markdown text editor developed using JavaFX. The installer script uses warp-packer to create installation-free self-extracting binaries for Windows and Linux.

My desktop text editor[1] is written using JavaFX and leans on Warp Packer[2] to create installer-free, multi-platform executable binaries (without jlink). A user contributed a new dark theme[3], which blends nicely with the desktop.

The JavaFX-based WebView (an HTML rendering component) is lauded, but has no direct API to control the scroll position and is itself a memory hog. Scrolling must be handled through JavaScript, and that indirection is as unwieldy as you can probably imagine. FlyingSaucer is a workable alternative to WebView, but comes with numerous technical issues that rear themselves when embedding a Swing widget inside a JavaFX application---as I discovered during development.

Were I to start from scratch, I would definitely seek out alternative cross-platform programming languages for desktop application development.

[1]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

[2]: https://github.com/dgiagio/warp

[3]: https://i.ibb.co/QpqS0NS/screenshot.png

"Java -- possible, but you'll need a startup script to just call java -jar some-tool.jar; (also not a good fit for short-lived tools, mainly due to startup times;)"

Two technologies to look at:

* Warp Packer -- https://github.com/dgiagio/warp/

* Liberica Native Image Kit -- https://bell-sw.com/pages/liberica-native-image-kit/

Warp Packer bundles my JavaFX desktop application, KeenWrite into single binary executable files:

* https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/releases/download/2.... (Linux)

* https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/releases/download/2.... (Windows)

* https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/releases/download/2....

The start-up time for the first launch of the .bin or .exe is slow because it unpacks to a user directory. Subsequent starts are fine enough, even when running from the command-line as a short-lived task. Here's the script that creates the self-contained executable files:

https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/blob/master/installe...

To create a release for all three files, I run a single shell script from a build machine:

https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/blob/master/release....

I could probably generate a binary for MacOS, but not enough people have asked.